The early Crime Doctor films were a great training ground for Columbia's up and coming young actors and actresses. Like Lloyd Bridges and Lynn Merrick who in this entry play a young couple who call on Dr. Ordway to see if he can advise them on their future. Jimmy Trotter was once on trial for murder and is forever in Ordway's debt for getting him a new trial (for which he was found not guilty). Ordway is concerned that he has put himself in the same working situation that he was in before his trial but before he can see Burns to ask him why he took a chance on Jimmie who has been shunned by society, Burns is murdered.Jimmie has really nothing to do with this intricately plotted entry, he is just a red herring, there to throw the scent off the real murderer. It is a story of revenge, inheritances and pent up grievances. There is icy Mrs. Byrnes (Rose Hobart) who has only been married a year and a pixilated housekeeper, Miss Patricia (Virginia Brissac) whose dreams hold the key to the mystery. She knows that the cook isn't really a cook but Burn's old partner's daughter who, disguised as domestic help, has come to the house for answers about her missing father. Jimmy, of course, brings suspicion on himself by fleeing from the house when the police van rolls up. Ellen (Jimmie's fiancée) also throws suspicion on herself when Ordway gives her a piece of vital evidence yet within seconds she drops it and her apologies don't sound sincere. After that she always seemed to look guilty but maybe that was just a case of bad acting on Merrick's part.Miss Patricia's hypnosis sessions with the good doctor has all paths leading to a disused night club - the Golden Nights. Over 30 years before it was a thriving theatre and Patricia was the dancing star who overhears a quarrel between Burns and his partner, Fenton, who was eager to get home because his wife was about to have a baby.In the early Crime Doctor entries Ordway was very hands on (in the later entries he seemed to be around only as a help to the police) and in this one he is at the front of the action when everyone converges on the old theatre where a skeleton is found as well as a hidden safe that interests the murderer very much. Thomas E. Jackson had played slow talking Sergeant Flaherty in "Little Caesar" and received a life sentence where he was destined to play officers of the law for the next three decades - he was terrific though, as was Barton Maclane. This was Gloria Dickson's next to last role. She had given a sensitive performance in "They Won't Forget" (all the publicity went to Lana Turner though) but was destined for a career of tough dames. She was playing a woman of 31 in this movie and really looked it, however in reality she was only 26. Constance Worth (Ordway's receptionist) had a noteworthy career in Australia as Jocelyn Howarth where she had starring parts in her first films - "The Squatter's Daughter" and "The Silence of Dean Maitland".

Warner Baxter is the "Crime Doctor," and here he is in the second film of the series, "Crime Doctor's Strangest Case," filmed in 1943. This one has a perk for baby boomers as it stars a very young Lloyd "Sea Hunt" Bridges as a man acquitted of killing his boss who consults Dr. Ordway (Baxter), the man who helped him in his case. Though he was found not guilty, he has had terrible trouble finding a new position. Now he's been offered a job working for a person instead of a company - a similar situation to his first job, and he wants to get married. Ordway recommends that he look instead for a corporate position, even if he has to leave town, and wait to get married.The Bridges character doesn't take Dr. O's advice, and when his boss is killed, it does look as though he was given the job so he could be framed. Ordway steps in to investigate, dueling wits with the detective in charge of the case (Barton MacLaine).This "Crime Doctor" has some comedy in it, with Jerome Cowan as a musician who is careless with matches. There's also a hilarious, very fast change of identity.This is a good series, and I hope to see more of it on TCM.

This is one of the earliest Crime Doctor films and perhaps when they wrote the script they thought it would be the good doctor's strangest case--though compared to some of the later films, this one is pretty ordinary though a tad confusing--certainly NOT particularly strange.The film begins with a very young and handsome Lloyd Bridges taking his fiancée to see Dr. Ordway. A short time later, Bridges is accused of committing murder and the doctor decides to investigate. Some of the plot twists were pretty weird and confusing. In fact, though you expect the plot to continue to be Ordway convincing everyone that Bridges is not the killer, this is only the film up to a point--as soon it becomes apparent that many people had a reason to want to kill the victim. Plus, soon more murder victims begin popping up in the oddest places! Overally, I really liked the plot (even though it was confusing) and the twists and turns worked out very well except for the actual way in which the first person was murdered. The manner chosen was so ridiculous and impossibly complicated that I really think this helped knock the film's rating down a point or so. Otherwise, if you can ignore this silly twist, it's an engaging and entertaining film.

A young LLOYD BRIDGES plays a man whose wealthy employer is found dead of poisoning. Bridges needs the help of crime doctor WARNER BAXTER to prove that he's not the murderer. When Bridges makes a quick getaway, we have Baxter left with a household of prime suspects, including REGINALD DENNY, LYNN MERRICK, ROSE HOBART and, later on, JEROME COWAN as a man who lights too many careless matches.VIRGINIA BRISSAC is good as a loyal but suspicious housekeeper who takes Baxter into her confidence, but it's young up and coming actor LLOYD BRIDGES who manages to make the strongest impression among the supporting cast. He was a more than capable actor even then.Based on characters created in a radio play, the nice thing about CRIME DOCTOR'S STRANGEST CASE is that all the loose ends are neatly tied up by Baxter's sleuthing abilities. Summing up: Mystery buffs should find this fast moving B-film a very enjoyable crime drama from Columbia.